Travelling with a bird

Hi all,

I was hoping somebody could help me if they have had a similar experience.

We are moving interstate in a couple of months and have a pet cockatiel. I have travelled short distance with her in the back seat of the car before but this time it is a 12 hour drive and it will be in a ute.

Due to lack of space she will need to go in the back of the ute. I want to make sure the trip is as stress free as possible for her.

I was thinking of getting a smaller travel cage which will be easier to ensure she won't get drafts from the wind or could the fact it is such an unfamiliar environment be more detrimental?

I thought i would just add that finding a home for her isn't an option. She is my baby and im not putting this into the too hard basket.

I don't think being in the wind in the back of a ute for 12+ hours would be a good idea. Maybe with a heavy duty canvas cover over the cage it would be ok. No chance of a really small cage in the ute somewhere?

I've traveled with budgies quite a few times before but usually in the trailer so the trailer was covered. We only traveled 2 hours though, so not 12 hours. We would stop half way and check on them and if the weather was hot we'd stop more often and spray them with a water bottle to keep them cool.

Maybe contact a bird/pet organisation or ask at your local big bird/pet store.

I was thinking if i got a small travel cage i could put her in the part of the back of the ute right behind the cabin with a thick cover. Where there is the most protection.

Im going to be 27+ weeks pregnant when we are doing this so we will be stopping frequently i envision so can check on her regularly.

I have looked at smaller cages and unfortunately they are still too big to fit in the cabin somewhere. My husband is over 6ft and he wouldn't be able to fit his feet in the passenger side if she was in the cabin with us.

I would have preferred this option but unfortunately being such a long trip we need to make sure that we are as comfortable as possible to rest between driving stints.

You can't take the bird out of the cage and travel with her sitting on eg. the seat or your shoulder? We've had a few cockatiels over so many years and we traveled 4 hours like this. Just put them in a cage or shoe box til we got in the car then taken them out. Obviously keep windows up lol. And put them back in shoe box/cage when we stop... But they seem to enjoy it =)

Could you fly them to your destination? Birds get distressed so easily and this may be less distressing as it won't be for as long. Thats what my parents did when we moved states when I was little. If not you can buy bird backpacks for people who want to take them out with them, its a backpack with mesh at the front and a perch inside, that might be easier if you want to take them in the car with you. I've only ever seen then on the internet.

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